Agetho
by TermStar
Summary: Three boys and two girls take an adventure forced onto them by supernatural beings from the city of Agetho located on the outskirts of Glasgow, Scotland. journey of action, adventure, and a bit of drama takes them far...Reviews are appreciated!
1. Capture

Jacob Davis walked down the street casually, tired from a long day of school. Alexandra Holkers had already speed-walked to the alley where she eagerly waited for a victim to pass by. Jake crossed the street approaching an alleyway. People often told him to loom to alleys cautiously, as burglar or thieves could pop out, but he passes this alleyway everyday, and no one had ever stopped him before. He shrugged and confidently walked closer to the alley, when he saw a figure moving through the corner of his eye. His heart jumped.

VVVVVV

Mark sat in the warehouse, which was near the beach and eagerly waited for Samantha. For the past few weeks, he had been dating her and hanging out with her a lot. He had really loved her, but wasn't sure if the feeling was mutual. Samantha had asked him to meet him at the warehouse at 4 PM. He looked at his watch, which read 3:59 PM. The door of the warehouse burst open with Samantha coming in with a stern look on her face. Mark stood up and stared as Samantha closed the door and locked it.

"Hey," Mark smiled a little nervously thinking he might be the cause for her feeling. "What's up?"

"What's up?" Samantha asked. "I'll tell you what's up. You bugging me every week to go out with you is what's up. You always want to be with me wherever I go, and not for the right reasons. I don't what you're planning, but you hurting me like this, is just…"

She looked down the tears started welling up in her eyes. Mark slowly walked up to her and touched her. She flinched and backed away.

"Look, I'm really very sorry, Sam," he started. "If I hurt you in any way, please forgive me. If you want a little space, I can lay off a little."

"You would?" Samantha asked wiping her tears away, looking up at Mark.

"Of course, Sam. I love you. I'll do anything to make you happy."

"Thank you so much…" She looked up at him with innocent eyes that were still a little watery. "I love you, too, Mark."

Mark stepped forward and touched her lightly on the cheek. This time, she didn't flinch.

VVVVVV

Jake's reflexes weren't the best. When he started forward to run, two hands grabbed his arms and with great force, threw Jake into the alleyway. Jake crashed into a bunch of empty tin trashcans, which scraped his forehead, and he hit the ground hardly skidding to a halt across the concrete pavement. After a few seconds, a searing pain hit his leg, and he realized he must have scraped it. He groaned and grabbed his leg. He sat there closing his eyes tightly, squealing in pain for a few seconds, and hoping the person wouldn't hurt him again. He opened his eyes a little and saw someone's legs about a foot away from him. He opened his eyes a little more, then widened them after he saw a little more of the person's body. The person was a girl with dark brown messy hair, a tan complexion, and was slim. She was wearing a sleeveless, strapless dark green shirt with some gray sweat pants. He almost laughed. He was getting thrashed by a girl. He recognized her though. He might have seen her on the streets or at the park, but he couldn't put his finger on who exactly she was.

He slowly got up and looked at her smiling, for some strange reason. "Who are you? What do you want from me? Money?"

"No."

"You wanna kill me?"

"No, not exactly."

"Then, what do you want?"

She didn't answer, and instead walked up closer to him. Jake stood up tall lifting his chin up, as the girl was taller than him and seemed to be towering over him. She grabbed his shirt collar and suddenly soared high up into the sky. She took him above the building and flew across town.

"What are you doing? Put me down!" Jake began to panic. Was she a superhero? Those don't exist, do they? His eyes widened as they flew higher, the cars and people looking miniscule and toy-ish.

Alexandra ignored him. She threw him up slightly, letting go of his shirt collar and grabbed his arm. She sped up, zooming towards a small warehouse and slammed on top of it. Jake slipped out of her grasp and slid down the roof, yelling. She sped to him and stepped on his shirttail. He stopped screaming as he stopped so suddenly.

"Whew, that was clo—" he couldn't finish, as Alexandra took her foot off of his shirt and kicked him off the warehouse. He landed on sand with slight force, but let out a soft scream.

Mark and Samantha slammed open the door, and saw a boy about their age with cuts and wounds lying on the sand, groaning. Alexandra jumped down, landing softly on her feet, and looked at the two new teenagers. She smiled as she felt another guy land next to her. He seemed to have been flying before, but the three teens didn't notice. The new young man was a little taller than Alex, with dark hair covering his dark blue eyes. He was wearing a black, buttoned shirt, slightly open at the top and rugged gray pants.

"Hello. My name is Danny. You all have just been accepted."

"To where?" Mark asked, stepping in front of Samantha.

Danny smiled, "To Agetho."

"What's that?" Jake said, standing up, brushing the sand off of him.

"You'll see," Alex said, bolting towards the couple, grabbing their arms, and zooming off into the air. She flew in circles for a while, and hovered a few feet over Danny. "You comin'?" He nodded, and grabbed Jake, flying off. Soon they were off to Agetho.

* * *

**I hope you enjoyed that! I know it went slow in the beginning, but I'll try to improve that. It's my first story...Please review; I enjoy criticism, and will fix any mistakes and take suggestions that you might have. Thanks for reading! :)**


	2. Fight and Flight

Samantha clung on to Alex, no matter how much she didn't want to. She, Mark, and Alex were gliding above the clouds now with Danny and Jake following them. Mark looked up at Alex and felt a sense of both fury and pity. She seemed like the type of girl who once was an innocent young girl picking flowers in the garden. Someone had come by and corrupted her entire personality and appearance. She still had the soft, tan cheeks and skin of a young girl, but her clothes were dark and intimidating. He looked behind him as best as he could to get a better look at Danny, when Alex zoomed ahead jerking Mark's head back forward.

He groaned a little, but immediately stopped. He didn't want Alex to think that he's weak. "Where are you taking us? Who...what are you guys? Superheroes?"

"We'll explain later, but we're not technically superheroes. We like to think of ourselves as distinctive, supernatural protectors."

"Distinctive...you mean weird?" Mark regretted saying that only a few seconds later. Alex had let go of his arm, and he began plummeting down back to the crust of Earth. He heard a scream of a girl's, which was probably Samantha's, then a yell of a strong male's voice. Mark presumed that was Danny's voice, scolding Alex. His eyes began to dry up and he felt like he was burning in the cold air of the lower atmosphere of Earth. He felt his entire body go numb and begin to freeze. That wasn't a good feeling. His throat suddenly felt strained and itchy when he realized he was yelling at the top of his lungs. He heard a small laugh and felt himself jerk up again. Danny had arrived, still carrying Jake and was pulling Mark back up to Samantha and Alex. Right when Danny had touched Mark, warmth spread back into Mark's arm and to the rest of his body.

Meanwhile, Samantha was crying and throwing a fit, punching and kicking at Alex. Alex didn't even seem to feel anything and continued flying forward with a sullen face. She looked behind her as Danny returned. He sped forward so he was flying beside Alex and furrowed his brows angrily at her.

"What the hell is your problem?!" he yelled. "You could have killed him! We need him with us. All three of them, and you know that."

Alexandra's expression didn't change. Instead, she just looked away from him. It almost seemed like she was sulking. Jake was thrown to her and though Alex couldn't see him, she swiftly grabbed his arm, and he floated up as if he was flying as well.

"Oh," Jacob raised his eyebrows. "What's this new power?"

"It's not new," Alex replied. "You've been flying all this time. As long as you have contact with me when I'm flying, you'll be flying as well."

"That's only if we want you to fly with us," chipped in Danny. He continued as he saw the mortal's confused expressions. "If we don't want you to fly with us, the instead of floating, gravity will take control as usual, and pull you down."

"Is that what happened with me and the girl who has anger problems?" Mark asked to Alex.

"My name is Alex," she said sternly. "And no. I just let you go on purpose. I was angry. That's different. You don't call us "

"How many people can you carry at once?" Mark asked.

"As many as we want."

"Let me guess," Jake said rolling his eyes. "You're also invincible."

"Almost," replied Alexandra. "When we are abusing our power--"

"Taking advantage of it almost and using it too much," continued Danny, "we lose our power."

"All of it? Or just the part of being invincible?" asked Jake.

"All of it."

"So you have to be really careful, then," Samantha said pretending to be concerned. That was the first time she spoke in the conversation. She looked at Mark's confused glimpse at her and gave him a reassuring smile, but she knew that everything from here on out is going to go downhill.

"You didn't understand my previous question, though..." Jake said, playing back the dialogue in his head again. He glanced at the two supernatural beings, straining his neck to look at Alex. "You just caught me without even looking at me...How did you know I was being thrown to you? Do you have eyes in the back of your head, or something?"

"No," she simply replied.

"Then what?"

Danny took control of the conversation. They were really careful not to give too much away. "Alright, all of you keep quiet from now on. I don't want to hear another question or comment from any one of you."

They didn't say anything for the next hour or two of flight, when Alex and Danny swooped down, below the clouds, scanning the area. They were flying about a massive pathway of grass--like a field--supported by forests on either side. The sun in the distance was beginning to dip down the horizon and bright colors of purple and orange smeared across the sky. They turned slightly towards the edge of the forest and dropped down, gaining speed as the flew down. As they reached about fifty feet above the ground, they slowed down. They could have kept going until they were only a few feet above the ground, before decreasing speed, but they remembered the mortals wouldn't be able to land smoothly at a hundred miles an hour without breaking all their bones. When they landed, the supernaturals didn't release their captives, but lessened their grip on them. Even if they tried to run, they wouldn't last a day in the wilderness. They were careful to pick city-like humans.

Jake shrugged Alex's hand off his arm, and looked around him. "Is this Agetho?"

"No, this is just a resting spot about fifty or so miles away from Agetho. We cannot fly at night--"

"Why not. You must have night-vision--"

"You all will need your rest for tomorrow morning. We will be walking the rest of the way. We do not want to arouse suspicion--"

"Yea, cause' I'm sure no one would have seen you at the beach in the afternoon, where it's densely populated most of the time. _And _I'm sure you and your partner were flying all over the city. Yep, no one would be suspicious."

Alexandra furrowed her brows at Jake. He was pulling at her nerves, but she calmed down and replied as soft as she could, though her voice tensed up at times, "Jake, please, just get some rest."

Mark and Samantha also pulled away and were standing together. Mark reached out a bit for Samantha's hand, when she took step away from him. Mark looked up at her once again in confusion, but she said nothing. A minute passed by of silence, and the mortals all stood still, while Danny and Alex parted to check the perimeters.

Jake spoke, "So what are we to sleep on?"

"On the ground," Danny had returned as quickly as he had left. "That won't be a problem, right?" That seemed like more of a statement than a question, as he didn't wait for a reply. Instead, he climbed one of the trees, and sat himself on a branch. The mortals exchanged glances at the sudden action, but took their spots on the wet dirt as far as possible from him.

"Aren't you going to sleep?" Samantha asked, directing the question to Danny. Mark cringed. Why was Samantha showing affection to Danny and keeping a distance between Mark? It should be vice versa, but Mark decided to ignore Samantha's strange actions for now.

"I don't need to. Besides, we need someone on the watch."

Darkness soon enveloped them all. Alex and Danny took their posts with the boy on top of the trees, and the girl scanning the ground. Mark and Samantha slept side by side together, but Sam had soon crept away from Mark. They had a five foot gap between one another. Mark couldn't understand, but then realized Samantha still might be angry about his pesterings the past week. But that doesn't mean she has to join the supernaturals' side. He turned and faced the sky, resting his head on his hands. In the wilderness, the sky was teeming with twinkling bright stars and the view was spectacular from above. He looked at Alex with her hands behind her back, standing up straight, her eyes darting from one place to another. She seemed prepare for an attack. He looked towards Jake who was sitting, leaning against a tree, his legs crossed in front of him. His head was tilted slightly up, his clothes were dirtied and his face contained small cuts and bruises. He looked just about fit for a poor farmboy.

Mark could have ran, right now, but he knew he was no match for the two superheroes; "Distinctive protectors" as they called themselves. Yea, right. Though for some reason, he didn't want to run. He didn't think it was necessary. Something inside him actually told him to stay where he was and to trust Alex and Danny. Something told him to trust Alex, the girl who had nearly killed him by dropping him from a couple of thousand feet in the sky. To trust Danny: the boy who resembled Death. Mark wanted to murder that something.


	3. The Lake

Jake cracked one of his eyes open and noticed Alex looming over him again, like back in the alleyway. It was still a bit dark, but he could see light coming from the distance. He didn't know exactly where it was coming from, but presumed it was the sun.

"What time is it?" I asked, groggily, when I realized I had a watch. It was nearly four in morning. Alex walked away and woke the other two.

"There is a lake a few miles from here," Alex announced. "We'll go there and get freshened up, but we shall not spend more than an hour there. The sun will be up in the sky soon, and we need to get a move on before—"

"Wait," Jake interrupted as usual "you said we're gonna be walking the rest of the way."

"I have taken care of that," was all Alex said.

They set off to the lake, and Samantha looked around. "Where's Danny?"

Mark twitched.

"He went deeper into the forest to get breakfast," Alex replied calmly. "He'll be back soon."

"Why, is there like an I-HOP in there?" Jake looked straight ahead, trudging through the rough dirt. When Alex ignored him, he continued to speak, "Why can't you take us there using your powers?"

"There might be people watching."

"Did Danny use his?"

"Yes, but—"

"Then use yours. We'll be there quicker—" Before he could finish, he was swept off his feet and thrown to a tree with amazing force, so that the tree split in half. Jake didn't even have to time to scream, but groaned and slid down the rough, hard plant, the rugged bark cutting into his skin.

Samantha froze, but Mark ran over to Jake and helped him up. Alex simply looked the sky, which was getting a bit brighter and called to them, "We better get a move on. The sun's rising higher.." She began to walk forward.

"Look what you've done to him!" Mark gasped as he saw the cuts and gashes on Jake's back. When he looked at his face, Mark thought he saw tears in the wounded boy's eyes, but Jake pulled away and continued to follow Alex to the lake.

Once they reached there, they saw Danny by the lake—which wasn't that big and was strangely still—and he had made a fire somehow, roasting some kind of meat over it. Jake didn't bother to question him. He probably went hunting in the time they were walking to the lake. After they had washed their hands and faces and eaten breakfast, Danny told them to follow them around a large boulder that had appeared out of nowhere. Mark had seen it from across the lake, but it didn't seem that big. Behind the rock were three horses. One was black with shining gold eyes, the second one was a brownish-tan color with a white spot on its neck, and the third one was a bright white.

"I'm afraid we're going to have to share," Danny said, but he added, "I get a horse to myself." He mounted the black one so swiftly the horse didn't flinch.

"Why do you get one all to yourself?"

"Because I'm going to be leading."

"So?"

Danny ignored him, and kicked the horse. It immediately ran forward, and galloped around the lake. He came back; his posture was straighter than it was before.

"Test run," he said smiling.

"Well, what are you all waiting for? Alex and Samantha will take the white one, and the boys will have the last horse. No questions, we need to start moving as soon as we can." They took their places on the horses. "We will stay in the forest and use the trees as a cover. I will be flying a bit now and then to check the safety of the path." He paused as he saw Jake get on behind Mark. His head then jerked toward Alex's who seemed to be calmer than ever, pretending nothing was wrong.

"Alex!" he shouted angrily, getting off the horse and walking over to Alex's. "What the hell is your problem?"

"What are you talking about?" she said pretending to be oblivious, when Danny pointed to Jake's horribly wounded back. "Oh…"

"Yea, oh," Danny imitated, and his expression changed. He still looked a bit angry, but it looked grave as is he was about to commit a murder. "You're always making me do this." He motioned her to follow her.

At this point, Alexandra looked like she was about to cry. Her lips were quivering and her skin was a bluish red. She quietly dismounted her horse and followed Danny, who had used his power of super-speed to find a deserted area so they were away from the view of the mortals, but could still see their confused looks.

Samantha sighed as she stroked the white horse's mane. "We could just escape right away."

"Only to have them catch us again," Jake muttered. "I've never seen anyone with such an anger problem…" Then he looked up. "She could lose her powers right? She's taking advantage of them."

"Not really," Mark replied. "One would be taking advantage of their powers if they use it for the smallest things. Like picking up a pencil and setting it down two inches away and if they do that everyday for weeks or months. That would be stupid, and they could lose it then."

"Is there any other way?"

"I don't know…" Mark looked into the distance and tried to see what was going on with Alex and Danny, but he couldn't see them.

Minutes passed and still no sign of them. Mark thought of continuing forward without them, but decided not to risk them getting brutally injured by the two superheroes, especially the one with anger problems. But a rumble of earth vibrated under them, and the two supernatural teens returned. Alexandra's face looked soft, but hurt. The mortals decided not to question what happened, but couldn't help but to stare at Danny.

Alex walked up to Jake, and he flinched. Gently, she touched the center of his back. The result was incredible and nothing like Mark or Samantha had ever seen. Mark had to twist around and lean back to see the transformation. The cuts and bruises slowly faded away as if it was sucked away by the air surrounding them. Even the shirt was left clean and new. It was like nothing bad did ever happen to him. She touched his cheek and the bruises and wounds there disappeared as well.

Mark smiled, as Jake shakily touched his cheek, feeling no cuts or dried blood. Jake looked back and smiled at Alex, "Thanks."

Alexandra furrowed her brows and looked at him, as if he had just cost Alex her life.


	4. Emotions with a Switch

The horses galloped across the forest, their feet making soft pattering noises as they hit the moist dirt spread out on the ground. The weather in the forest was humid, sweat clinging to the mortals' clothes. Mark was having a very difficult time managing his horse, though it seemed like it was the easiest horse to direct. The other two horses were steered by superheroes, so the didn't have to worry. He felt a tap on his back and turned his head slightly to the side to tell Jake that he was listening.

"I hope we find people on the way who can help us," he whispered, but loud enough for Mark to hear over the gallops.

Mark nodded, but he knew that would be a low chance. They didn't even know where they were. They were in England a day ago, but now they could even be in France. They couldn't see where they were when they were flying above the clouds or how fast they were going. It didn't even seem like they were going forward much up in the sky, but he had never heard of a field so big in England or even near that country for that matter.

It was about two hours, before they stopped at a stream, only three feet wide, running through a clearing in the forest. There barely any more trees as far as they could see from now on, but there was grass that reached up to their knees. The weather here was slightly cooler and mild because of the wind, but the sun was shining directly at them. As the horses drank from the stream, Samantha got off the horse and kicked around at the grass. She looked up at Danny, then looked away toward Mark. He had the most confusing expression upon his face. It was like he was angry, troubled, and disappointed all at the same time.

She slowly walked over to him, stepping over the long, yellow grass, and looked up at him. They both didn't say anything for a few seconds, when Mark began the conversation.

"What's up?" he asked solemnly, and began walking towards the stream, squatting down beside it. Samantha shrugged and kneeled down, and sat on her calves, next to him.

"Yea, I get it," Mark said suddenly with a sad voice hinted with slight anger. Samantha began to get nervous, when Mark replied, "How would someone feel when they get dragged across the country by supernatural teenagers to a place where they didn't even know existed?"

"I dunno. I guess they would feel scared…and angry, that they are under their mercy, and can't do anything about it." She nodded her head at the two teens who were standing a few yards behind them with their hands behind their backs, standing upright, looking straight ahead into nothingness.

"Homesick," Mark added, wading his hands in the stream. "Depressed…" he stopped, and his eyelids drooped. His lip quavered for a second, but then he looked away, and stood up.

Samantha looked up at him, tilting her head to the right slightly. Mark usually was a strong person, but these monsters might have been pushing them to hard. They were changing and becoming better, especially Alex, but if Danny was gone, everything would be chaotic.

They continued journeying across the field, and stopped again to eat some meat that Danny had saved. Mark chewed on his bland-tasting chunk of meat slowly, savoring it, as this might be the last meal they get. Jake finished his in a couple of bites, and when he asked them for more, he was ignored. He reached down, picked up a rock, and threw it at them, missing terribly, and neither of the superheroes even flinched. Jake suddenly yelled out a curse at them and stormed away, jumping on top of his horse, galloping ahead with it, the direction they were supposed to be going. Mark didn't understand why he could have just gone the other way, and go back home, but he figured that wouldn't do a thing. Either Alex or Danny would just pull him back here. Now, they were just staring at him go, and quietly mounted their horses. Samantha climbed behind Alex, trying her best not to touch the supernatural.

"No," Alexandra said. "You will ride with Danny, and Mark will ride with me, from now on."

Samantha looked at Danny who was busy doing test runs, and dismounted the horse. She looked at Mark as she passed by, and his face had turned more depressed than ever. She looked at Alex who was staring at Jake with his horse galloping away, and looked back at Mark.

"Hey…" she stepped toward him, and reached up to touch his cheek. He moved aside, pushing her hand away, and walked towards Alexandra's horse. Samantha couldn't believe it. She wasn't sure why Mark was doing all this, but she guessed it was because of her scheme. It was even better that Mark was keeping his distance to her now, because her plan would be able to unravel more swiftly. She didn't want to tell him, as it would spark the risk of being attacked, so she calmly stepped toward Danny's horse and mounted it.

Out of the corner of her eye Sam saw Danny and Alex look at each other for a moment, then Alex nodded and she and Mark galloped away. Danny didn't move, as if he was waiting for something. Suddenly a rush of wind hit them along with dust nearly blinding Samantha, but she shielded her eyes just in time and leaned forward, pressing her face on something soft, but firm. When she looked up, she realized it was Danny's shoulder. She felt her face turn hot, and the blood rush up to her head, and the feeling of embarrassment flashed in her mind.

But soon, she completely forgot about her mistaken action as the gust of strong wind disappeared, revealing three strangers. The one in the middle was grasping the other two with each hand on either side of her by their arms, while they were squirming around, wanting to be free. The two had bruises and cuts on their heads and arms, and one of their shirts was torn at the sleeve. It was a girl and a boy, with another dark-brown haired boy who was in the center, looking proud of his work.

Danny smirked and nodded at the brown-haired boy, who flew up into the air with a crack, still holding his captives.


	5. Questions and the Arrival

Samantha stared up as the three disappeared above the fluffy, outstretched pieces of cotton, called clouds.

"Ace," Danny said, looking at Sam's puzzled look. "That's the boy's name who just flew up with his own captives."

"What are their names?" Samantha asked, then turning wide-eyed. " Have they been tortured like Alex did to Jake? How many more do you have captured?"

But Danny didn't answer any of her questions. Instead, he kicked his horse and they both trotted off, following Alex, Mark, and Jake. At first they were going at a slow and steady speed. Then, they picked up their pace, and the horse was racing at what seemed like a hundred miles an hour. Samantha didn't want to hold on to Danny's waist or shoulders, so she just clutched on to the saddle. A strong breeze hit her, cutting through her face, tearing her eyes. The ground was getting uneven and Samantha was almost tossed off the horse, but she closed her eyes tightly, like that will prevent her from falling of the horse. And somehow, it did. But when she opened her eyes, she realized she had her hands clasped around Danny's abdomen, her arms around his waist. She pulled away, as he just chuckled and slowed down.

"I just wanted to get caught up with Alex," he said with a smile. "Sorry, if I scared you." His face looked mocking.

Alex just turned around with a "humph" and looked to her right at the border of forest. "You're not telling me anything."

"What's there to tell?" Danny asked, glumly, not taking his eyes off of the endless stretch of long grass of the field in front of him.

"Everything. Just tell me who the other mortals were."

"They are people like you." He paused. "Their names are Kris and Mia. The boy is Hispanic and the girl is of south-Asian heritage, I'm not sure exactly where…"

"Why are you taking us to Agetho?" Samantha asked trying to pull out as much information as she can.

"Just following orders."

"How many more of you are there? Are you being controlled by someone or something?" she tried to sound as casual as possible.

"There aren't many of us…only about twenty in our clan."

"So there are clans?"

"Yes. We come from the Fire clan."

"Oh, so are you guys enemies of all the other clans?"

"Not all of the others. There are only three more clans, of course. Air, Earth, and Water. We side with the Air clan."

"So, you guys can make fire?"

"No, those are just names. Labels. They don't mean much."

"Do you have a leader?"

"Kind of. He's more like a ruler, than a leader. He just tells us what to do, and we do it for him, or suffer the consequences."

"Whoa, but can't you guys rebel? He's just one person and you guys are very powerful."

"No, that's the thing. We are faithful to our ruler and obey him, because we want to. He gives us protection in return. We have self-control…or at least most of us do." His eyes wandered toward Alex, riding in her horse in front of them.

* * *

Mark looked behind him at Danny and Samantha converse, then turned back looking at Alex's backside. If Samantha was trying to stretch the distance between Mark and her, then he will do the same. She just didn't want to be with him anymore, he figured. Sighing, he clutched the saddle as they picked up speed, now riding alongside Jake.

"Why?" Alex called out to him.

"I lost control," he called back, raising his voice over the beat of the horses' hooves pattering on the ground. "You guys weren't being fair to us."

"You don't know how hard it is for me to keep under control. Especially since I'm new to all this. You know, I didn't even know I had these powers…well, I did, but they weren't so strong before."

"Really?"

"Yes, I was just a normal kid, going to school. I could only do small things, like levitate objects and run the mile in less than five minutes…but then I got captured."

"Like you captured us?"

"Yes, quite like that. After they took me to Agetho, where I live now, they trained me, and my powers became stronger."

"But we aren't like that. I never had any powers."

"I know," Alex looked down feeling guilt knotted up in her stomach. How could she tell them what was going to happen to them? No, they can't know until they get there.

"Then, why have you taken us?"

"We just want you to be part of the Great Council," she lied.

"What?"

"It's like a government, except within our clan. It's called different things in different clans."

"Clans?"

* * *

"So she's new to all this?" Samantha asked.

"The newest in the Fire Clan," Danny replied.

"That's so sad in a way."

"Yes, but she must get used to it."

Samantha looked ahead of them, and saw Jake and Alex talk, while Mark sat behind Alex, listening with a sad, gloomy face. As soon as they stopped talking, Danny kicked at the horse once again, and rode alongside the three others. They rode in silence for the next hour, when Jake looked at Mark.

"So who are you?" he asked.

"Mark," he solemnly replied, then looked at him. "You're Jake, right?"

"Yea, and she's Sam? Samantha?"

"Yes, she is."

"Are you guys together?"

Mark shrugged, "I don't know anymore."

Samantha looked over feeling terribly guilty. Maybe there was another idea to get them out of this mess. It didn't seem like the superheroes were too bad, but Ace looked very murderous, almost hungry-looking as he was holding his captives. Alex and Danny didn't seem to bad, but they still hadn't told them the reason of their capture. Samantha was still staring at Mark, when he looked back at her. Their eyes locked for a while, then both looked away at the same time, staring straight ahead, as they all trotted off into the distance.

As they neared their destination, the air began to get humid and thick. Fogs or a fume of some sort spread across in front of them, so they couldn't see most than a few yards ahead. The grass was getting shorter and drier, and sky a more black and orange color. Danny had said the clan's name didn't have much to do with the clan itself, but now Samantha could see he was lying. They neared even closer, and the fume cleared to reveal the greatest built ancient city the mortals had ever seen below them. Towers of metal and stone stretched tall and high, each one containing at least 5,000 windows. A few of the buildings were short, but they were wide, and the roofs were well sculpted, gargoyles, dragons, and other mythical creatures carved into them, protruding out of the roofs. Roads zigzagged between the buildings, the tiny streetlamps (at least they were tiny from where they were standing) contained a ball of fire, burning bright in goblets on top of long sticks of silver or iron. The city was surrounded by a lake of a hot, steaming dark liquid. Everything seemed so dark and congested, it didn't look like people could tell night from day.

"We're here," Danny nodded to Alex. "I'll go ahead and tell the King of our arrival. After I return, we all will enter the city together." He flew off into the city, disappearing into the massive stone structures, leaving Samantha with his horse, Alex with Mark on their own, and Jake by himself on the the tannish-brown horse. Suddenly the horse jerked around, jumping, throwing Jake off of it, and bounded away behind them.

"Wha-?" he looked at Alex, who calmly stepped down from hers along with Mark, Samantha doing the same. The other horses neighed loud, standing on their hind legs, then trotted off the same way the brown horse had gone.

"They don't like the smell," Alex said.

The mortals then scrunched their noses, covering them with their hands after a few moments, realized how bad it smelled. They didn't even seem to notice the unbearable stench of ashes and rotten dead bodies until Alex had told them.

Jake coughed and looked at Alex, "How are you able to withstand it?"

"I guess I'm use to it," she replied. She stood straight and walked to the edge of the cliff and looked down, a thousand feet below her. She remembered when they were first constructing the moat when she had first arrived here. It was just a tiny pit, but now everything had changed. There seemed to be an abundance of food a few months back, but now they were running out. Not only of food, but other resources to make weapons, clothes, and armour for the upcoming battle. She turned to look at the mortals. They looked worn out and unpleased with the way everything was going. Alex couldn't tell them what was going to happen to them. They would just jump into the boiling black liquid, their bodies burning and dissolving away.

* * *

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**A bit longer than usual, but I want to find a good place to stop. Hope you're enjoying it and please review! :)**


	6. Room or Furnace?

Mark looked at Alexandra. She was hiding something and he knew it. The way she was looking at the boiling, murky lake seemed like her mind was elsewhere thinking about something. Something that might be important to the mortals' knowledge. Minutes passed and no one said another word afraid. Mark, Jack, and Samantha didn't know what the supernaturals wanted from them, but so far they have been treating them nicely. Who knows what will happen in their suffocatingly heated dwelling.

A whooshing sound pierced the air surrounding them, and Danny had appeared next to Alex. "Let's go."

The five flew over the black lake. Within seconds they had arrived in front of a tall, orange tower with black streaks falling from the top as if the paint had started to drip because of rain, but it really didn't look like it ever rained in Agetho. Two cone-shaped towers of the same color stood on either side of it with red flags hoisted on top of each one. They weren't flapping. There was no wind.

At the bottom was a gigantic steel door about a foot thick that about four guards in ragged brown suits had to pull open. This revealed a large room with tables and chairs positioned in various places. The wallpaper was orange, the carpet was a dark orange and the furniture was either black or dark red. No, of course the name Fire clan had nothing to do with the actual clan. Alex and Danny led the mortals to a staircase at a corner of the room.

Jack's ears perked up as he heard Danny murmur something to Alex as they were going up the stairs. All he heard him say was the word "postpone." He remained quiet and tried his best not to complain as they climbed the stairs. They passed about eight stories when they reached a long dark corridor, dimly lit by torches hung on the side of each door placed along the walls. Danny led them to a door which had no sign of labels or marks, but somehow Danny knew this was the room which they were to stay in for the night. Danny explained a few ground rules and left, locking the door from the outside with Alex at his heels.

The room was twice the size of a standard master bedroom with three single beds and a bathroom in the corner. Other than that, it wasn't furnished well. There were no closets or desks or chairs. Just a single bedside table and a worn out, dirty rug that matched the walls. The paint on them was peeling off and the color itself was a murky orange. On the floor in one corner was a toaster with a CD in one of the slots. A small chandelier hung on the wall seeming like it was about to crash to the floor and break into millions of minuscule pieces. The room itself must have been created centuries ago, but some amateur of the real world decided either a toaster looked like a CD player, or the CD was something to eat, swallow, and digest.

"What are they really going to do to us?" Mark asked pointing the question mainly at Jack.

"How should I know?" Jack replied still checking out the room.

"You were closer to them, you must have heard the message Danny was whispering to Alex."

"I couldn't hear anything. His voice was too low."

"You didn't hear anything? Not one word?"

Jack thought for a while. Why should that one word matter anyhow? It's just going to tire us and get us worried. He knew that something bad was going to happen to them. But did he want to be the superhero of the mortals, himself? He sighed. Three minds are better than one.

"Postpone."

Silence. Mark and Samantha exchanged glances.

"Are they going to postpone the ceremony of inaugurating us or something?" Samantha asked. "That's what they said they'll do. They want us to join their government."

"You don't suppose they are really going to go through with that do you?" Jack asked in a tired, cracked voice.

"Then, what?"

"Whatever it is we have to escape," Mark announced. "No matter what. It doesn't even matter if they are going to give us a chest of gold and jewels. I don't like the looks of this creepy place and I want out. Who's with me?"

"Aye!" Jack agreed raising his fist in the air, then lowered it down and scratched his head in embarrassment. Mark just smiled and looked at the blonde-haired girl who looked very hesitant to leave. "Sam?"

"Why don't we wait till morning?" she asked, yawning, clasping her hands and stretching her arms in front of her. "I'm a little tired. You know, climbing all those steps."

"Tomorrow might be too late. We have to leave right away."

"How?" Jack asked. "There aren't even any windows here. It's a prison cell…Why would they treat their future government officials as prisoners? I mean, even cells have a tiny window."

"Want to try and break a wall open? It might lead to another room. People will join us. The more the merrier, right?"

"I wouldn't call this situation merry."

Mark looked over at Samantha who was already fast asleep on one of the beds. "I guess we can some rest today. We can't escape tired." His voice remained steady as he spoke, but he almost felt exhausted. They haven't even been walking too much, but the twisting staircase was a big strain. He ran his fingers through his now damp hair. He just realized the air in the room was humid and thick, opposing the dry, thin air outside. Beads of perspiration trickled down his back under his cotton polo. Jack was also feeling hot and congested, but he tried to ignore the feeling. He slid on top of the cot and closed his eyes, soon drifting off to a deep, needed sleep.

Mark exhaled softly and walked over to a bed, leaning against the backboard, conjuring up an escape plan for the next day.

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**A/N: Sorry about the shortness of this chapter, but I'll be adding more soon! I hope you're enjoying it and please review! I would like to hear your comments and criticisms. :D Anything I can change? Shall I kill someone off? **


	7. The Other Two

It was cold. Freezing, actually. A strong wind pushed at him, but he struggled to keep his feet firmly on the ground. The bad thing was, that he couldn't even feel them. His limbs were completely numb and tiny icicles drooped from his hair, dangling, clinging against each other from the wind. The small noise boomed in his ear as it seemed to be the only noise besides the howling wind.

This couldn't be. He was in Agetho: a boiling, hot, and dry place where thick smoke hung in the air. He let out a small yelp when he felt something. He felt something. That itself was a big achievement, but this feeling was quite painful. Something was piercing his leg and when he looked down, he saw a stick like object protruding from his leg. Two thinner sticks were passing through it perpendicularly towards the back of it. He realized what it was. An arrow.

It was strange though. The arrow slowly began to push through, deeper into the flesh and through his muscle. Time was moving slowly. Or was he going surprisingly quickly? Since everything was slow, the pain traveled slowly up his body and he felt himself tilt a little, then more every second. He was falling. When he looked down he saw a white floor. He presumed it was snow. But it wasn't.

It was blankness. He was falling into nothingness. He couldn't scream, though. He was too confused. Nothing at all in this crazy dimension made sense to him except for the fact that there was weather. But even that too disappeared within seconds. It didn't even seem like there was air, so it was like outer space. He was falling and falling deeper into the nothingness, but he couldn't even tell.

Soon enough he was able to make out two little slits of orange below him. They grew larger and larger and the slits formed into lemon-shaped figures of fire. The whiteness around him turned pitch black and screams bellowed through the space. Screeches of bats echoed in his ears and roars of angry lions rumbled and shook his entire body. He was vibrating rapidly and his ability to control himself vanished. A mouth-like formation took place below the eyes of fire and gigantic teeth of sharks lined it. The corners of it twitched then the entire mouth formed into a wide, malicious smile. He fell faster than ever almost at the speed of light towards it, then darkness enveloped him and he awoke.

Kris looked around him at the tiny room he was kept in along with the other girl whom Ace had captured. Ace wasn't a good guy. He was evil. Kris despised his guts and dreadful ways of punishing them. They didn't even do anything wrong. Why were they brought to this place? It was hell. Exactly like it. It might as well have been. No, no Kris was sure this was much better than hell. But still…

"Kris," a soothing voice called. The person was also shaking him. He realized he was still closing his eyes. "Kris, wake up. Someone's coming."

He snapped his eyes open to see a pretty, tan, black-haired girl bent over him with a worried expression upon her face. Mia. She was the girl who had been captured with him by Ace.

"Someone's coming," she repeated.

He sat up and looked around him. No one was in the room and he couldn't even hear footsteps. "How do you know?"

She straightened up quickly and replied in a slightly shaky voice looking the door, "He's here."

A perplexed expression spread across Kris' face, until he also looked towards the door, standing up. The brown-haired menace slammed open the door and entered the room with a spiteful expression on his face.

"Did you enjoy your sleep?" he asked them in a mocking tone. Neither of them replied. He inhaled deeply and grinned stepping up to the girl. "Mmm, delicious."

Mia didn't say anything and her expression remained stoic, but she was disgusted by the way Ace was acting at the moment. It was like she was some sort of food to him. Then her mind froze for a second. _Was_ she food to him? Something flashed in her head, and her heart skipped a beat.

Ace let out a small laugh, staring at her for a bit more, before walking up to Kris. "And how are _you_ doing little one?"

"You're pathetic," Kris sneered, before receiving a forceful blow from Ace. His lips began to bleed, but as if this was something usual, he pressed the back of his hand to them to slow the blood flow.

"Don't talk to me that way, you little runt," he furrowed his brows at him, then softened himself and turned back to Mia. "I'll be right back. Don't miss me too much, okay?" He winked at her, checking her out for one last time, and bounded out the door.

Tears rolled down from Mia's face as soon as he left. She sat down on Kris' cot, sobbing softly, thinking about her normal life at home and her caring parents and older sister. They were all so close. Would she ever return to them again? For the first time, she feared something terribly. Not only did she fear she would never see her family or her friends again, but she also feared death.

Kris sat down on the bed next to her and gently put her arm around her, comforting her, quieting her down. "It's okay," he said, as she rested her head on his shoulder, still weeping. "Everything will be alright. We'll get out of this, Mia."

A minute or two passed and she stopped crying, slowly getting up. She looked at Kris, troublingly. "We're going to die."

Kris' eyes widened and he was alarmed at her words. Was she going completely insane? She knew when Ace was coming when there was no sign or noises that could be inferred from.

"We have to get out of here. They're going to do something terrible to us. Something horrifying and…" she lost her voice for a moment and almost began to cry again. Another vision flashed in her mind once more. She looked at the door once again, and then she walked up to it, wrapping her fingers and hand around the knob. She slowly began to turn it and the door opened.


	8. Revelation

Mia glanced behind her at Kris who immediately hurried forward, amazed at the blunder of Ace. How could he have forgotten such a small action as to lock the door? The two poked their heads out into the long corridor and after seeing no sign of guards or supernatural people, they cautiously slipped out with Mia leading. They approached stairs, so Kris began to turn toward them when Mia shot him an angry arrow-shooting glare. She pointed forward, but before Kris could start to protest, she gave him a reassuring nod like she knew what she was doing. She saw a door in her head a few moments before. A door twelve doors away from theirs. Behind that door maybe help or even death awaiting them, but she wanted to keep going or the scene would bother her forever.

On their way they saw a guard lying on the floor, blood flowing quickly out of his throat and across his chest. Mia could just imagine it in her head. Ace stopping the poor guard, asking him questions and when he refused to reply to any more…Kris spotted something flashing in one of the guard's shirt pockets. He carefully picked it up in case it may be poisonous, but when he recognized the dangling item in front of him, he saw that it was just a key. He slipped it into his pocket, and both Mia and him edged around him, continuing forward.

She stopped at the door, and both of them looked to either side of them keeping a lookout for any living guards, but there were none. Mia tried to open the door, hoping it wouldn't be locked like theirs, but it wouldn't budge. Kris fished out the key from his pocket and fit it into the lock on the door, twisting it. A click was heard from the mechanisms inside. He opened the door slowly and there standing in a semicircle, three teens their own age: two boys and one girl furrowing their brows, peering at Mia and him. The two slipped inside before they could be noticed by anyone in the halls and closed the door softly behind them.

Samantha, Mark, and Jake stood staring at Mia and Kris, when Sam's eyes widened in recognition.

"You two!" she exclaimed, not sure whether to be happy or worried. Her mind strained to remember their names when she found them sitting mischievously in the corner of her mind. "Mia? Kris!"

Jake and Mark switched their stares to Samantha. "You know them?" Mark asked.

"Yes, I saw them. I saw those two when I was traveling with Danny. A guy named Ace was holding them captives."

"So you're like us," Jake gazed at them, then turned directly to the girl with black hair, some of it cascading down, covering part of her face like bangs. She looked very familiar. "What's your name again?"

"Mia," she replied lifting her chin up slightly to show her confidence, so as not to let him overpower her. He looked the type.

"Right," he bowed his head, then turned toward Sam and Mark with doubt and confusion.

"I'm Kris," he stepped forward a bit, in front of Mia. "Identify yourselves."

They did, and within an hour or two they became accustomed with one another and were fairly comfortable. Jake kept throwing awkward glances and peering at Mia, but she did her best to ignore him.

"Alex and Danny actually came by a few minutes before you guys arrived," Mark was saying. "They said we needed to go to another building for this meeting thing. There's going to be food there."

Mia cringed at this. Something flashed in her head again, and she looked away to the door. "We have to go," she said, almost whimpering. "We have to escape. They won't be giving us food, Mark."

"What are you talking about?" Mark asked, bewildered.

"She was saying that in our room after Ace left, too," Kris said. "According to her, something bad is going to happen to us."

"What's going to happen to us?" Jack leaned forward, trying to look Mia directly in the eyes, but she refused to meet his. "You have to tell us Mia."

"You know how you said you heard the word 'postpone' from Danny?" she said, and when Jack nodded she continued her limbs shaking, "They were going to postpone the dinner."

"Dinner?"

"Now, it's lunch."

The other four just sat staring at Mia as if she was going insane. "What are you talking about, Mia?" Mark asked.

"The food," she began, and then turned to look at Mark straight in the eyes, "is us."

Their expressions formed into disturbed looks, flinching or recoiling, scrunching their faces, then turned into scared faces. No one spoke for a while, when the door bolted open. There stood, side-by-side, Ace and Danny with frustrated, angry looks on their faces, with Samantha behind them containing an angry expression worse then both the guys combined. Though they were guys, she was fiercer and taller than either of them.

The five had to act quickly. They didn't have an escape plan thought out together, but decided to follow whoever decides to be the leader. The three supernaturals charged, and the five tried to spread out, but something hard hit each one of them, and they soon fell into a deep unneeded sleep.

"Why should we keep them?"

"This was their first attempt!"

"And you think this will be their last? Oh no—"

"Like this isn't the first time there has been escape attempts from our victims," a voice spoke from behind the three supernaturals. "You three are behaving like children," he spat the words out at them. "You should know how to deal with situations like this." He moved to the other side of the room, picking up a mug and sliding it under the slug like object jutting out from the wall, which immediately spurted out a black liquid into it. He took a sip, and moved towards them. "This isn't rocket science. You guys can do anything, and yet you are doing nothing."

"Sir, we—"

"Don't give me excuses," he peered at them with furrowed brows. "I want you to get them to the Macellarium quickly and get it done with. The King is getting hungrier by the minute."

With that he marched off disappearing behind a silver, transparent curtain.

"Our boss speaks correctly," Ace said with a slightly sarcastic tone.

"Then again, we haven't been the smartest bunch," Danny remarked, walking over to the silver veil, pushing his finger through it and back out again.

"Look at them squirming like pathetic worms," Ace looked at the five sitting on the floor in a circle facing outwards, tied together, their mouths sealed by some sort of magic tape.

" In an hour," he began walking around them. "You five will be meat. The King will have his share first, then we all will take a piece, as you see that's how we stay alive." He emphasized the last two words. Standing directly in front of Mia, he smiled, squatting down. "You're mine." He reached out to touch her, and she looked away, trying to remain strong.

"Ace, that's enough!" Danny shouted marching halfway over to him.

Ace pulled his hand back, upset, then stood up, grinning again, circling them.

"One hour, and _splurt_! You won't be able to even recognize your own bodies," Ace laughed. He stopped, and looked ahead of him at the blonde girl, crying, struggling to get free. "Why hello there." He smiled, but caught himself, looking up at Danny's threatening face. "I wouldn't mine having a slice of you either," he whispered in her ear, and stood up. Sam closed her eyes tightly, tears pouring out.

"We should start the shipping in a few minutes," Danny replied. "Let's go check the radiator in the Macellarium. We also need a back up. Alex, can you deal with that?"

She nodded, and they all flew off, deserting the five struggling children after removing the seals of their mouths.

"Let them have their last words," Danny smirked, flying off to the Macellarium with Ace laughing and Alex smiling behind him.


	9. Release

"Mark!" Samantha screamed. "We have to get out of here. They'll kill us! They're going to kill us! I know they are! I hate him! I hate them all!" She screamed and shouted, trying to pull away from the binding that tied her.

"Samantha!" Mark yelled. "Stop it! Sam, listen to me. It's gonna be alright."

"No!" her voice broke for a moment and tears spilled from her eyes by buckets. "No…it's not…"

"Sam…" Mark gazed ahead of him at the dark, gloomy wall.

Mia looked next to her at Kris, who didn't seem too scared. She wasn't either, but she knew she should be. At the same time, she couldn't find a reason to be. Should she just welcome death into her arms and let go of the insanity of constant premonitions haunting her. That would be a big block of lead lifted off of her; peace and serenity would finally be at her side. Mia still hadn't taken her eyes off of Kris, but he was also gazing into her eyes. She smiled, not bothering to pull apart their bond. Although they had just met a day ago, she felt like she could trust him and depend upon him for anything. Never in her life has she felt this strong feeling flow through her.

This wasn't necessary. Not right now. This is absolutely not the most spectacular situation for her to be falling deeply in love with someone. She pulled her gaze away from him and stared at the silver, transparent curtain.

* * *

Danny felt the adrenalin rush through him and for once in his life he felt happy. He was accomplishing loads with little help from his teammates: Ace and Alex. He zoomed through the air and broke the air around him, flying away from the two faster than the speed of sound. He let out a _whoo! _and dipped below the clouds circling many of the towers, breaking and shattering a few of the tiles and stones on them.

Ace and Alex exchanged extremely worried and scared looks and rocketed forward, chasing after Danny.

"No!" Ace called out. "Danny, stop!"

"Danny!" Alex yelled.

Another way of abusing a power is to use it without any reason to. This included killing or destroying for no reason. Danny whooshed by the many soldiers and slaves below him and reached both hands out breaking the stones and denting the steel on the buildings.

"DANNY!" Alex called, only a few hundred yards away from him. "NOO!"

Danny laughed with pleasure, not hearing his mates' calls, and then his smile suddenly disappeared as he saw the large pieces of rocks that had broken off behind him. The stones plummeted down and crashed on people's heads, smashing them off or scraping them clean so you can see their white, precious skulls hidden beneath the massive amount of flesh and veins ripped off. He gulped staying still, then looked up, away from the hideous sight, and saw Alex and Ace rushing toward him on either side of him. Danny was still high up in the air. He felt himself being released of something. Something that was holding him tight all along. He felt a strong breeze hitting his face and heard small screams in the distance. Then, he smiled, for what may be the last time.

* * *

Jake felt himself loosen. The binding that tied his wrists and ankles together started to come apart. Within seconds it had come completely off. This could be a dream, but he couldn't remember falling asleep. He stood up, excited and looked at the others' surprised expressions. Then, there semi-invisible ropes disappeared completely and they all stood along with him in silence.

"Something happened to one of them," Mark was the first to speak. "That person is probably the one who tied us up.

"Abusing of power," Samantha gasped, wiping away the last tear rolling down her dampened cheek.

"That's all we need to know," Jake said looking around the back of the room for a door or another escape route. "We just have to escape now, before the other two come for us."

They searched the entire room for any trap door, any sign of another exit, but couldn't find anything except a few broken desks and the silver curtain.

"We have to go through that," Kris exclaimed. "There's no other way."

"What if we get lost?" Samantha asked, moving closer to Mark, grasping his hand. Mark smiled. He got his old Samantha back, but he knew none of them would ever be the same when they…_if_ they get back home.

"We'll hold hands," Mia answered, immediately grabbing Kris' arm.

They all soon joined hands and entered the curtain together. What came after that was completely unbelievable, but so far everything not of the norm has been happening to them, so this wasn't completely a surprise.

A second after they entered the tunnel, a series of white puffy clouds enveloped them and feelings of needles pricking underneath their skin spread through their bodies. Shouts and screams rang out from a one or two of them, but most of them tried to bear the pain. They felt themselves rise and fall back down slowly for a few seconds, as if rocking on a ship out on the sea. Then, as if a giant shark spat out of the water and swallowed the ship whole, darkness closed in on them.

Groans. Whispers. Scared Laughter. Mark opened his eyes. Sunlight spilled out on him from all different directions, but shadows also loomed over him like trees with branches like claws. They _were _trees. He sat up and looked around him. His escapees were sprawled out on the ground in deep sleep, when Mia jerked her eyes open. She sat up, also, and realized they were in a dark, depressed forest. Sounds of screeching monkeys and flapping birds echoed throughout the woody ground. A breeze of cold air suddenly rushed through their hairs and a dark, eerie feeling crept up to them.

Soon, all of them had awakened and were standing in a circle, peering around them. Where were they?

* * *

**A/N: This one was a bit short, but that's because the next one is probably going to be really long. I also am going to be a bit busy over the next two weeks because of work and other reasons. Thanks for your patience and I hope you're enjoying the story.**


	10. Mare Creatura

Samantha clutched Mark's hand tightly, her hand shaking while she did. Jack stood behind them, his feet firmly practically glued to the ground, but then he relaxed them. Walking around, he touched a tree or two to see if anything was dangerous about the darkened wooded beings of the forest. Pieces of dirt fell off of one of them and a crab-like creature quickly scurried from its hiding place and climbed as fast as it could up the tree. Jack pulled his hand back and continued searching around for any other living things. He found none. Mia and Kris peered at Jack bending down then walking upright around them in a semi-crouched position.

"Where are we?" Mark asked.

"It seems like we're in a forest," Jack replied.

"Really? I didn't know."

Jack furrowed his brows at him for a moment, and then twisted his head around, looking above him at the tops of the trees looming over him.

"We should start heading forward," Kris suggested.

"Which way is forward?" Mark asked. "We don't want to be heading back in the direction of Agetho."

"I can help with that."

A voice chirped above them. When the mortals looked up, there was nothing but more trees and branched that zigzagged and interlocked with one another. There was also the crab from earlier that seemed to be staring down at them. Jack looked around them in case the voice came from somewhere eye-leveled.

"I'm up here, boy," the same male voice squeaked from above.

As they looked up again, the crab raised a claw and swung it side to side, waving at them. The mortals backed away and stood their ground, Jack and Mark assuming fighting positions.

The crab laughed. "Not to worry, I'm a good guy."

It suddenly jumped high into the air and stretched, getting bigger and obtaining human features. Within fractions of a second it had completely turned human and landed with a soft thud in front of them. The male had soft, light red hair, and his skin was a bit gray, his feet covered in a shell material as the shoes and his clothing composed of a loose pale-red, collared shirt with pins and more shell embedded in several different areas and a nicely-fitted gray pant with dark brown and black spots. His hands were cupped slightly, his four fingers glued together and his thumb curving inwards almost on the other side of his hand. The nails were sharp and almost joined together. He looked like a human crab.

"I'm Caran Guejo," he spoke in a slight Latin-American accent and his voice was deeper than the squeaky crab voice. "I come from the water clan. Nice to meet you all." Though, his English was close to perfect.

They said nothing.

"I suggest going that way," he jerked his thumb behind him, then pointed forward. "That way is Fire clan. Nasty folks. We prefer to stay away from them. They are meat eaters. I hope you know already what exactly they eat."

A few of them nodded.

"Well come on over to our clan. We are vegetarians along with the Earth clan. They are not too far away from where we live."

"Don't you live underwater?" Jack asked.

"Ah. They speak!" he smiled. "Most of us do, but I can stay on land for a long time. I'm a crab, remember?"

"Right," Jack looked behind him at the others in a questioning look. A few of them shrugged and nodded, signaling that they could try to trust him. Mark gave him a look to watch out for any signs that could lead to betrayal or death, and Jack nodded in agreement. So did the rest.

"Alright," Jack said.

"Lead us on, then," Mark continued.

They walked on for a few minutes, when the questions began.

"How far is it from here?" Kris asked.

"Just another ten minutes," Caran replied.

"Do you have any other powers besides transformation?" Samantha asked.

"I can jump high and am invincible."

"Can you fly?"

"I said I could jump high."

"Can you run fast?" Kris asked.

"Yes, but I have limits."

"Super-strength?"

"No."

The mortals were a bit disappointed. Though he seemed a lot nicer than the ones of the Fire clan, he seemed a lot less powerful. Minutes passed of silence. The trees began clearing up bit-by-bit and almost completely cleared up as they neared the coast. Soft sand soon replaced the hard, moist dirt, and the sound of waves crashing filled the air. Many sea animal-like humans were grouped together in their own miniature clans, chatting and playing games. One of the groups contained people wearing a dark green shirt, fitting tightly around their skin, topped with a black vest and a heavy jacket, green, light brown, and gray tiles on the backs. Turtles. Another group looked a bit similar to Caran and yet very different. The colors and claws matched, but these had long, spiky tails. Scorpions. Human-like seals and walruses were scattered through the area as well. A few people like Caran were gathered in a circle, and they turned around with smiles and greeted him cheerily.

"What have you brought here?" what seemed like the oldest guy said a bit tensely, looking at the five, overwhelmed mortals. A lot of the other creatures gathered around to look at the new beings.

"Mortals, Granc," Caran replied. He and the others relaxed, thankful it wasn't anyone from the Air or Fire clans. "They were lost in the forest, and looked very confused, so I brought them here. I hope it's alright?"

"Of course, of course!" Granc smiled. "It won't be a problem." He motioned to a seal-human. "Tat, can you bring them some food. We all know yours is the best here." He smiled and his eyes drifted over to the five. "Welcome to the water clan, or as we call it, Terra do Mar, in your language, it translates to Land of the Sea as the clan is combined of both land and sea animals. May I know your names?"

As each one introduced themselves, a look of amusement spread across a lot of their faces. "What strange names you have," a smaller scorpion piped. What seemed like her mother, silenced the child, but she herself, couldn't help but let out a small chuckle.

"_Our_ names are strange?" Jack asked, beginning to start an argument, when Mark shot him a look, and whispered, "We want them to have our trust."

Jack silently agreed, but still had a strong urge to argue.

Soon, they all sat on split logs on the sand and enjoyed a nice meal of vegetarian seafood. Different colored plants of the sea were filled in bowls and set in front of them. They were handed large, rounded shells as bowls. Kris, Mark, and Jack inhaled the food quickly, but Mia just picked delicately at her seaweed. Samantha shoveled some spoonfuls in her mouth, then sat quietly waiting for the others to finish.

"So, where are you from, young mortals?" Granc asked.

"England," Mark replied, and Jack and Samantha nodded in a agreement.

"We're from America," said Kris, speaking for both him and Mia.

The group of crabs shook their heads and laughed. Jack twitched, but remained calm and set down his shell-bowl. After a few moments, the others did the same and stood.

"Why don't you show them around, Caran?" Granc said. "Take them down below."

"Absolutely," Caran replied with a wide smile, and took them closer to the water. "Hold hands with one another," he ordered gently. "Try not to let go for a minute." He placed his hand on Jack's shoulder who was at one end, and within seconds a searing pain hit the mortal's necks and went away as soon as it came. They were in the water and as they felt their necks, gills had formed, and their hands and feet became slightly webbed. "You can let go now." Caran's voice could be heard perfectly; it wasn't muffled by the water at all.

The mortals let go. They all felt so free drifting in the water. All of them swam around for a bit, until Caran signaled them to follow him. Swimming in the top layer of the ocean, they passed by sharks who were also vegetarian according Caran and groups of large whales from humpback to killer. They dived deeper into the water passing schools of shimmering fish and soon reached the bright, vibrant colors of the coral and sea anemones. The sight was amazing. The mortals didn't think they had seen anything so colorful and beautiful in their lives. Caran pointed ahead of him at a large cave.

"That's where my uncle lives."

They swam over to the cave and entered it, covered by darkness. Lights soon spilled out and warm water greeted them cheerily. The mortals met the uncle who was a little taller and a bit plumper than Caran. His name was Taskura Pu. Some of Caran's cousins and friends also joined them. They all chatted happily and had a few sea-snacks, when Taskura set his shell down and stared a the five children, smiling and having a good time with Caran.

"I'm sorry to interrupt," he said. His voice sounded similar to Caran's. "But I must warn you right away that these times are dangerous."

The mortals exchanged glances because of the sudden change of tone.

He continued. "A war is upon us. We all have to be aware of any signs that are different. At any moment, a rain of canons or arrows of fire could shower down on us. And you five cannot be here."

"Why, not?" Samantha asked.

"Yes, why?" Jack asked. "We can join you. We can fight with you."

"No," Taskura said sternly. "You are not going to fight with us. We are different from you. More powerful."

"How exactly does a war between invincible people take place?"

"The leaders of each clans grasp a porcelain goblet in the center of the first battlefield. The goblet will pull away our power of invincibility and disappears. When one side wins or truces, the goblet reappears and we take our powers back."

"That sounds fair enough," Mark said. "We're not invincible either. We can fight. You can give us some of your powers right. Even then, we can still help. We'll train."

"Yes, we'll do anything," Kris said.

Taskura shook his head, still hesitant. "I can't risk that. None of you have any powers that will help you fight, and it will take weeks to train."

"We'll try to learn faster," Samantha pleaded.

"I can help. I'm psychic," Mia raised her voice above the commotion.

The sea-creatures all stopped and stared at her with wide-eyes.


	11. The Safe Haven

They all weren't too surprised. After all, they had come from the fire clan's territory. Any one of their supernaturals could have transferred their powers to her. But just then, Mia said something, which astounded the sea humans even further.

"I've been psychic ever since I was little. When I was three or four, my parents were going out to a small vacation by themselves in Florida. But it was only after they left that I had the premonition."

"What did you see?" Taskura asked.

"The roller coaster…fell apart…"

The mortals' eyes widened, and a few gasped as she said this, but the sea creatures didn't understand.

"What's a roller coaster?" one of the waiters, tall with jagged red hair, asked.

"It's like a small train," Mark began, "going on a track that goes up and down." He motioned his arm, curving up and down, then twisted it, and drew a loop in the air to show more things the track could do.

"What kind of object of amusement is that?" one shouted.

"Why would anyone ride that train?" another questioned.

"They have seatbelts and the track should be securely fixed…" Jack began.

"But it wasn't," Mia shook her head, and buried her face in her hands. "I should have called them, but I didn't know any better. I was only three. I thought they would know not to ride it…"

Silence filled the room for a few seconds. A few people whispered in their native language, and others exchanged glances, but most stayed put and quiet.

"I'm so sorry, Mia," Kris put his hand on her shoulder.

"It's okay," she looked up again, but her face didn't seem any saddened than it was an hour ago. She was one strong girl, or she just was just good at hiding her emotions.

A human who had bluish tentacles coming from his waist and a few from his head swished inside the brightly lit room in the cave, which was odd, since fire couldn't reside underwater. No one knew where the light was coming from.

"Poul!" Taskura exclaimed. "What are doing here?"

He swam swiftly over to Taskura and spoke in a low, incomprehensible voice. But, Taskura seemed to understand immediately, and called forth one of the waiters who then took the others, except one, and swam inside a back room.

"What's going on?" Jack asked.

Taskura didn't answer, "You five follow Spade into the safe haven. Do not come up or follow the others. Stay with him at all times, do you understand?"

"I'll help," another sweet, pure voice called from behind Taskura. It seemed like a girl with long flowing, white hair like silk, and her body and limbs looked like it was just about to turn transparent, but stayed that way. Her face was a bit more opaque than the rest of her features, her eyes almond shaped, and her nose perfectly curved, above a pair of lips a bit darkened and thin. She flowed into the room and stopped swiftly next to Spade.

Jack's mouth almost immediately dropped open, but he controlled it, and just looked away to Mark who just looked at him, smiling and shaking his head.

"Alright, Stella," Taskura continued, quickly. "Never at any costs go up to the surface or even attempt to come out of the cave." He began to swim out of the room leaving the last bit of instructions for the two sea creatures ending with, "They're your responsibility!"

Stella nodded to Spade and they took their positions, the boy behind and the female ahead. They reached a long corridor with a small glint of light coming out of the side of the wall at the very end.

"This way," she said in the same precious voice.

Jack nudged Mark who just looked at him absurdly, pointing slightly to the very confused Samantha. "I'm with her," he whispered.

Jack smiled, and swam a little closer to Stella, but stopped himself seeing something fly out of one of her stands of hair. It almost seemed like a spark.

"Are you serious?" he mouthed to Mark who just shrugged.

Jack remained next to Mark the rest of the time they were in the hallway. They reached the room, which was only a bit bigger than the room they were in with Taskura. Stella stepped aside, letting the mortals in first. As they piled in, they noticed a huge, flat stone lay tilted on the wall. Spade hopped inside and Stella gently laid her hand on it. It grunted then shook and moved aside to cover the entryway.

Nothing was in the room, except a few chairs, a long cupboard, and a wardrobe. Once again, various lights seemed to be emitting from nowhere the mortals could see. Kris took a closer look at Spade. Something was a little absurd about his face. His nose seemed ridiculously long and more pointed than a typical human nose, and his skin contained a grayish tone. A swordfish? Spade caught him staring, so Kris looked away at the wardrobe.

"What's in there?"

"Supplies and clothes of armor," Spade said.

"You'll find food in the cupboard," Stella continued. "Of course, you might find our tastes a bit …peculiar." She smiled a beautiful smile and Jack had to force himself to stop gaping.

"What are they doing up there?" Mark asked.

"We cannot tell you."

"Why not?" Kris asked. "We deserve to know why we are going to be trapped in this room for who knows how long."

"I'm sorry," Stella replied. "That information is classified."

"Bullshi-"

Mia gave him a hard shove in his ribs. He let out a soft yell, then looked at her furrowing his brows.

"We just want to help," Mia said. "To be honest, we despise the Fire clan as well, and will probably not like the Air clan if we meet them."

"Oh, no," Spade smiled. "You will fall for the people of the Air clan. They can be tricky and deceiving."

"And they are perhaps the most beautiful looking people of all the clans," Stella smiled, giving Jack a look that made him almost melt.

"It doesn't matter," Mark said. "We want to fight and help."

"No," Spade said sharply. "You cannot help. You are not powerful enough."

"We can train! We'll do anything!" Kris was almost yelling at her.

"How long do you think it will take for you to train?" Spade asked.

"It may take months," Stella stated, gently sitting on one of the chairs.

"By that time, the attacks would have probably already begun," Spade said.

"We can learn faster," Samantha exclaimed. "We will work hard."

"Why exactly do you want to help us anyway?"

Mia froze for a few seconds, then pulled a chair, made of gigantic seashells, over and sat down. She hadn't spoken for a while. Long enough for her to have a vision, at least.

"Are you alright?" Jack asked.

Kris kneeled down, placing a hand on her shoulder. "What did you see, Mia?"

"The lunch…" she began, her fingers intertwined on her lap.

"What?"

She looked up at them, and the two sea creatures leaned forward a bit to listen in. "In Agetho…You know how I was talking about them going to eat us for lunch?"

A few of the mortals cringed, but nodded.

"The kids they were going to eat…the ones that I saw in my vision. They weren't us."

"What are you talking about?" Kris asked. "They have to be us…you saw five kids right? Three boys and two girls."

"I did…" she began. "The first vision was unclear. It was blurred. The one that I just had, was more clear. All three boys were blonde. One of the girls had red hair and one had dark brown hair. A few were wearing chains and rings, and the boys seemed like they had just come out of a workshop. Dirty…and, anyway, they…"

She paused, trying to find the right words, and they all patiently waited, curious, but at the same time completely afraid.

"They were all strapped to long stone tables. Slaves of sorts came and began working on them."

"Working on them?" Mark asked, but knowing what was going to happen to them.

"They pulled out knives and instruments slitting only certain areas of their bodies. The kids were all struggling and screaming. I mean, they looked so much younger that us too," she looked away for a second, then continued taking a deep breath. "The stone tables turned, still floating in the air, making them face the ground, but still strapped firmly. The blood was poured out into large rectangular buckets. Then, they were flipped back up, and the slaves began skinning them. The kids were dead soon after." She gulped, Kris tightening the grip on her shoulder, rubbing it gently to soothe her. "They were soon hung together on ropes after the organs and veins were put aside, and were hanging from the ceiling above a large pot of boiling oil. Then…the ropes were cut."

The mortals recoiled and twitched slightly, but remained a bit calm, proud they had escaped from that outrageous torture.


	12. False Alarm, or not

A/N: Okay, wow. I just realized that I changed one of the character's names from Jake to Jack. But from now on he'll be called Jack. Sorry for the possible inconvenience!

Stella's eyebrows rose so suddenly, and she swiftly turned her head towards the door. She glided to the door and touched it with two fingers, the stone almost immediately grunted and moved aside, letting in only one young man a little older than her and looked almost exactly like her. Their facial structures were similar and both of them had the same colored eyes, except the man was taller and wore male clothes. Samantha's eyes widened, and as an immediate reflex, Mark grabbed her hand, squeezing it tightly. He was not going to risk losing her again.

"You can come out, now," his voice was deep and didn't crack even once as he spoke. "It turns out the arrival wasn't much of a threat."

"So, it was a false alarm," Jack peered at him. His good looks almost pushed down Jack's own self-esteem so he tried to make it faintly clear he didn't like the young man.

"Not exactly," he seemed to be almost smirking back at Jack. "I believe it's safe for you to come up and see, now."

As they made their way out of the corridor and into Taskura's cave, Stella briefly explained who the stranger was. Not surprisingly, he was Stella's elder brother, Scyph, the last two letters pronounced as an 'f.' In the past years, he has been working hard and long to prepare for the upcoming battle, but is rooting for the position of the assistant of the commander. That was the second highest position in the battle, and Scyph was fully aware of the load he has to carry when in that rank.

"What's up there, then?" Jack asked, swinging his arms, swimming briskly alongside Scyph, who was more than a foot taller than him, or in this case, longer.

"Either a messenger or a spy sent by the Fire clan," he responded, not taking his eyes off of ahead of him. "I couldn't get a close look, because of the crowd already gathered, but from what I took a glimpse at, it seemed like the messenger was a girl."

"A girl?"

"She was also screaming in rage and seemed to be calling out a human's name of your world."

Jack looked up at him, curiously. "What was the name?"

He paused as they all entered the edge of the cave, barely enough light streaming down from above. It was around evening time.

"Jack," he immediately took off, pushing his toes away from the rock below him, and swished out into open water, then slowed down, making smooth, and soft bounces to the surface.

Jack stared after him, recollecting what he had just said to him at the same time admiring his way of swimming. Stella swished past him and swam to the surface the in the same swimming pattern as Skyph. They all soon followed the jellyfish humans to the surface, but once the mortals were out of the water, they were shivering, their clothes completely soaked. As they squeezed the water out as much as they could, the sea creatures followed them out of the water and a stretched bubble of water was fit around Spade's head allowed him to breathe, and a whole extra layer of a similar type of bubble was attached to the jellyfish's body like another layer of skin, making them look more transparent than ever.

Walking speedily to where the large crowd was gathered, the tiny group made there way through and in the center, standing and bound by a certain spell, was a young girl, her hair messily flowing down and her eyes tired and welled with tears. "Jack!" she screamed, almost sobbing, once he came to her view. "Help me! Jack! Please! Don't let them hurt me! No, Jack, don't let them do anything to me!"

Jack raised an eyebrow at her and scooted over to Taskura, Granc, and Caran. They didn't even realize when Caran left, but he assumed he did once Poul had come in to report the news of the invasion.

"Jack!" she was still screaming.

Jack stayed close to water creatures as one of them lifted their hands and a shell-patterned slash of rubber clamped immediately over her mouth. Tears still continued to stream out of her eyes, and she looked like she was still trying to scream and yell. Jack peered closer at her looking at her eyes and the messy hair. Those characteristics were very similar. She looked up at him with innocent, damp eyes, then fell to her knees, her hair falling in front of her face.

"Alex?" Jack asked.

She snapped her head up and from her eyes and her cheekbones, he could tell that she was smiling.

"Hey," Jack motioned to Granc. "Let her talk."

Granc looked at him for a moment, and with his nod, he willingly pulled the shell plaster free from her mouth. Alex let out a gasp and bowed her head for a few seconds, then slowly lifted it up and smiled at him, trying her best to stand.

"You know her?" Caran asked putting on a disgusted face.

"She's one of the people who captured me," Jack replied not taking her eyes off of her. "I want to hear what she has to say."

Alex remained silent for a moment or two, then her eyes began to water once more, "Jack…he's gone. Danny's gone, Jack."

"What the, what are you talking about, he's gone?"

"He's DEAD!"

That's why they were able to free themselves. Danny was probably the one who tied them up, and he lost his powers. But how did he die? "What happened to him?"

"He lost his powers…" she sobbed. "He died, Jack. He was flying when he lost them. He was so high…he fell so fast…we couldn't get to him on time."

Jack looked at the others who just nodded and made their way out of the crowd again. Jack stood still when Mark motioned him to follow, but he stayed put.

"Why are you here?" Jack asked the miserable girl.

"I was tired of working for them. The entire clan. I want to join yours. Please, help me."

"How?"

Alex looked up at him, her brows slightly furrowing, then relaxing, her entire body trembling as she looked at the crowd surrounding her. She shook her head.

Jack nodded, and told them all to disperse except his three trusted sea-creatures, Caran, Granc, and Taskura. "Whatever you have to tell me, you must also tell them."

"Please…" she whispered. "We have to talk alone."

Jack sighed, but when he prepared to send the three away, they assertively shook their heads and folded their hands, signaling they were not going to leave him alone.

"We can't," he replied. "We can't trust you, yet."

"That's why I need your help."

"No, you have to prove to me, to us, that you will give us no harm." Suddenly, something struck to him. He thought she was invincible. How could simple water magic be able to tie her up? The water clan was more powerful than he thought.

"How…" she tried freeing herself from the tight binds around her, but it didn't work. When she tried to bring her fire power to dry out the water, she was not able to conjure it.

Jack raised his eyebrows and prepared to talk, then closed his mouth again, turning and looking at the three, then looking at Mark and the other three mortals standing a few yards away silently watching. "That," he began, "is an excellent question. Uh, you will prove to us…by uh…"

"No," Taskura simply said. "No, you will not prove anything to us. I know you are new to the fire clan, but there must have been a reason they kidnapped you to join them. A very. Good. Reason." He sighed then looked up at her with a solemn facial expression, but reproachful eyes. "I'm sorry, but you must go back to your clan. You belong there." With that, he glided back to his fellow crabmates and began chatting happily as if nothing ever occurred in the past fifteen minutes.

Jack looked at her, and gently shook her head, then jogged over to the other four mortals. He heard faint sobs and some soft screams, finally followed by a an ear-piercing cry of the word 'No!' He jerked his head to look behind him, but Alex was nowhere in sight.

"Come on," he heard Mark's voice behind him, but didn't move. Then he felt a tug, and looked at Samantha slightly pulling at his arm, and then quickly holding on to Mark's again. "Let's go Jack," she said in a shaky voice.

He didn't know what Mark saw in her. She was weak, unintelligent from what he was seeing so far, and couldn't stick to one boy for more than an hour. But Mark's gentle kiss on her neck and appreciative smile proved to Jack that he was in love with Samantha. Jack never was the lustful type. He remembered the first attack of Alex of him. She looked beautiful, near angelic, and her personality would be too, if she hadn't attacked him or behaved the way did a few seconds ago. Any boy would have fallen in love with her, but he didn't feel a thing when he first looked at her. Not even a small spark of the slightest affection.

Ahead, Mark was happy to be with her. A rush of energy soon filled him up, and as much as he tried to soothe himself down, he couldn't. It was still dark and the crowd of trees lined the edge of where the sand turns swiftly into moist dirt. Mark put his arm around Samantha's waist, who smiled, but gently pushed it off. He did it once again, squeezing her waist a little, and this time Samantha looked up at him and grasped his hand tightly, both of them heading to a tiny secluded area, barred by boulders and small island trees.

Jack didn't even want to know what they were going to do, but knew this was not the time to be goofing off. Mia and Kris exchanged glances with him as the two lovebirds left happily to there cavern-like spot, but the three just sat down on the sand in a random place. A five-year old kid, who looked like another scorpion, skipped happily over to them and pressed her hand in the middle of the three, on the sand. A light emanated from where she had laid her, and a glow, similar to ones in the underwater caves, brightened up in the middle, lighting up only that circle where they were gathered. Proud of her work, she skipped away again to join her friends playing a game where at the end they sting the loser who lets out a scream, but within seconds smiled and laughed all of them starting the game over again.


	13. Acceptance

"Taskura, we can't just let them stay, and you know that."

"But they can help us. One even said she had a paranormal ability."

"Oh, really?"

Taskura and Granc were debating ferociously, one having a loud and clear voice, and one a bit overpowered. They were in some sort of underground cave that lied within the coastline. Half of it was damp and the other half dry. Taskura sighed, and continued. "Yes, the black haired girl."

Granc seemed to be making some clicking noises with his tongue and the roof of his mouth, and a silence followed. It would be incredibly dangerous and most probably fatal for the children to join their army, but at the same time a bit valuable. The girl in the couple looked a bit weak and so did the black-haired girl's supporter, but both had a sense of determination and willpower. The creatures have never, at least in a long time, transferred their powers to mortals. Very few people before had ever escaped the Fire clan's clutches, and the few that did, most died away, getting lost. Discovering those bodies, spies and lookouts such as Caran the crab, had been sent to be hidden among the trees or beneath the soil, to lookout for such escapees or even spies from the Fire Clan, such as Alexandra.

"Where is she?" Granc was playing with his mug of seaweed soup.

"Above with her friend and the strong one that the spy had been calling his name of. What's his name..ah Jack."

Granc couldn't help but to smile again at the strange name, but that soon disappeared and he replied in a grim voice, "Call her down."

"Mia" Jack said slowly. "Where did you say you were from again?"

"The States," she smiled. "You're from England, right?"

"Yes," Jack nodded poking at the light, which glowed in the sand, but it did nothing to his irritating prods. "It must be hard for you…"

"I'm sorry?"

"It must be hard dealing with the…" he pointed a finger at his forehead temple, but was careful not to circle it around it.

"Oh…" she looked up at him with wide, thoughtful eyes. "It's not too bad now; it used to be worse. I used to get visions that I don't like seeing or that don't even come true, but I seemed to have somehow controlled that."

Jack nodded, and smiled, "You are one strong girl."

"Hm," she smiled, and clasped her hands on her lap, her legs folded neatly side by side. She gazed into the glowing light in the center of their triangle, and something flickered into her mind. Something angry and violent. A man was running towards her, a long, trenchant weapon in his hand. Hundreds and thousands of people were in a mess around each other breaking and clanging things, and muffled sounds of clashes and shouts filled her ears. He held it in the air, bringing it back, then hurled it forward directly at her, the weapon shooting at her like an arrow. Someone screamed and she was shaken back to reality.

"Mia," Kris was saying. "Mia, what happened?"

"It's gonna happen," she breathed, realizing she was the one screaming. "Sometime soon."

"What's gonna happen?"

"I think she's talking about the war," Jack immediately stood up. "I'll get Granc and Taskura." Just as he turned around, Taskura was standing before him, with wide, curious eyes, then turned to Mia with the same expression. "Granc would like to see you, Mia."

She nodded and quietly followed him to the underground cave where Granc was pacing across the room, and stopped, snapping his head up at them when they entered. She was taken to a seat and the other two stood opposite to her, first glancing at one another, whispering a few things, then looked at her intently.

"Young one," Granc began, standing up straight. "Taskura and I have been discussing very thoroughly on the decision of accepting the five of you into our Clan. As to be in our side of the battle, you must be part of the clan, whether immortal or mortal." Mia nodded her head. "Taskura just told me you saw something recently in one of your visions." Mia nodded again, this time averting her eyes from the king of the clan. "You saw that the war is going to take place very soon."

Mia pressed her lips together, then looked up at them. Looked like an emperor and his advisor. "I saw thousands of people, some were part of the fire clan, some were even Earth."

"I just want to know," Granc interrupted swiftly, "if you saw exactly who was seemed to be more successful. Or in your words, who was winning?

Mia thought hard, but she couldn't quite remember. Most of her visions are a blur except one specific thing, and that one was the man with the weapon. She told them that, and they shook their heads, still desperate for answers. "Thing harder, Mia," Taskura said softly. "This might tell us if we need more troops to our side, or better tactics."

"I just saw a lot of blue and green," she shook her head, and set her hand softly on her cheek, moving it up to her forehead, massaging her brows. "I barely saw any yellow or red or orange, or anything related to the Fire Clan. I'm guessing there was the Earth and the Water, and that's it."

"Did you see any white?" Granc asked, leaning forward, a bit more attentive, now.

"White?"

"The Air Clan."

"There may have been some, I can't remember…" she buried her head in her hands. "I'm sorry," she looked up at them. "My visions aren't the clearest. It may not even happen."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, before, when I was a bit younger, some of my visions never came true."

"Is it because you changed something? You altered one of your movements or actions and that caused something else to happen."

"Perhaps…but sometimes they just aren't true. Even when I don't change anything."

"So the war might not even happen? Is that what you're saying?"

"Yes…"

Granc sighed and looked at Taskura who was merely watching the conversations and questions unravel, and when he caught Granc's glimpse, he shrugged, "We have to be prepared for anything. We should still deploy our troops the way we planned."

"Of course, of course," Granc nodded and picked up his mug of soup, long ago cooled, and sipped a bit, then scrunching his face, he looked at Mia. "You're hired!"

Mia stared at him wide-eyed, her lips forming into a smile. "Really? We can join your clan?"

"Yes, indeed!"

Mia's smiled widened, and she stood up and gave Granc a tight embrace. Granc was startled by this unexpected action, but returned the hug.

"Thank you so much, we'll do anything to train. We'll train hard and long, and we'll follow your orders. Whatever you command, we will not break a rule."

Granc nodded, and Mia shook hands with Taskura, who soon took her back to the surface, and left her to exclaim the news to her mortal friends, soon to become powerful.

"That's awesome!" Kris smiled and patted her shoulder gently.

"Quite excellent!" Jack smiled as well, high-fiving Mia and looked around him. "Where is the other two? We should tell them as well, then get to sleep. We'll probably start to train at dawn tomorrow."

"I'll tell them," Mia nodded, and hurried off to the secluded area where the couple had ran off to earlier. What she saw there, made her back away and wait a bit farther away from the tree-sheltered, barred area.


	14. The Missing Mortal

Mark and Samantha stood awkwardly by each other, a full five feet apart, Mark having his hands slid into his pockets, Samantha's clasped arms loosely hanging below her abdomen. They didn't talk for a while as they were just recovering for a light fight that had occurred only a few seconds back.

"Samantha," Mark broke the silence and took a step toward her, but she simply turned away peering into the cracks of the trees next to her. "Samantha," he repeated. "I don't want us to be like this. I really don't." She turned her head slightly and bowed her head staring at her embracing hands. "Hey," Mark continued, taking another step, and gently grasped her right arm, "we should try to get along. These small arguments are just going to make things much worse, and at our state, with that old bloke Taskura rejecting us from helping them. It's just…I just don't like us being split apart so often. It weakens the power of our group and … sometimes I wonder whether we're even right for each other."

At this, Samantha turned her head, teary eyed, gazing into Mark's two blue crystals and stepped forward, her right arm clasped onto Mark's left, and vice versa. "Mark, I can be a little judgmental sometimes and my moods can certainly be varying—"

"So can mine."

"But please, don't ever say that. Don't ever say we aren't right for each other. I know we are."

Mark smiled and lifted his hand to wipe away her falling tears. "I know we are too," he leaned forward grinning a bit, "for now."

Samantha let out soft chuckle and they both leaned closer to one another, no longer aware of their surroundings. Their lips pressed against one another and both fell into a long loving embrace.

Mia had just entered the premises and backed away in the same direction she had arrived, leaning against a strangely large boulder. She hadn't heard anything for a few minutes except for a few whispers followed by more silence in the secluded area. She was about to turn when Kris came at light jog towards her.

"Did you tell them?" he called out, too loudly, when a few feet in front of her.

"Um, not yet," Mia whispered shooing him farther from the area, a confused expression spread across on his face.

"What happened?" he said softly, this time.

"They…" she looked behind her as the couple emerged from behind a group of boulders. They didn't look angry or even the slightest bit irritated, and the only thing they asked was the general question of what happened.

"Taskura and Granc," Mia began.

"They are allowing us to join their side," Kris finished off.

"We can fight?" Mark asked almost forgetting about Samantha, who suddenly wasn't very happy. "That's excellent!"

"Oh…" Samantha said, but when the other three looked at her, she smiled a bit, "That's great!"

"We start training early morning tomorrow," Mia continued. "The enemy clans will come at any time."

"Of course, we should be preparing right now, but we should really get some sleep."

Mia and Kris nodded and they jogged off to where Jack was supposed to be by the glowing area with Mark following and Samantha lagging along behind them. The glowing light was no longer there and neither was Jack. Most of the sea creatures had disappeared with only a few of the adults finishing off their conversations and digging a hole in the ground quickly, sand from the surface swiftly covering the holes.

"Where's Jack?" Kris asked. "He was sitting here when I left him."

"Probably was taken away by Taskura or someone," Mark proposed.

A crab the size of a tennis ball scuttled towards them and immediately transformed into someone the mortals haven't seen before.

"Please follow me," he commanded swiftly, but in a low voice.

The mortals exchanged glances but reluctantly followed the crab-human who dug a hole in the ground, and landed somewhere a few hundred feet below, as lights were emitting from the underground cave. "No worries!" he called out. "I'll catch you if you fall!"

Each of them hesitantly took their turns into the tunnel. It was extremely steep, but as it was slightly angled, the sand below them was smoothened so much it was almost like a completely enclosed, dark slide. Mia was the last, but before jumping in, she looked around her for Jack in case he was still outside, but as the sun had already disappeared below the horizon, it was almost completely pitch dark except for a few torches lit on the far side of the forest and the dim moonlight. Still worried, Mia sat down, her legs dangling into the hole and slid in, zooming through it, the bit of light from above shut off within seconds. She didn't even have the breath or even time to scream as she fell and slid further and further into the hole, when she finally landed on something soft, but firm.

She realized she was closing her eyes the entire time, and when she opened them, orangish-yellow light flowed into her vision, like the light coming from fire or a lantern. Her feet found the damp hard ground, slipping a bit but catching her balance. When she took the time to peer at her surroundings, the three other teens were examining where they were but when they noticed Taskura his arms folded firmly, but smiling, they relaxed and walked towards him.

Taskura nodded to the crab-human who had just let Mia to the ground and had transformed back into a crab scurrying off in the other direction. Mark nudged at Samantha, who was fiddling with her shirt having a depressed look upon her face, but smiled at Mark slightly and looked back at Taskura, who was peering at the four of them.

"One is missing," he exclaimed. "Where is he?"

Mia exchanged glances with the rest. "I though one of the sea creatures might have taken him to the cave."

Taskura shook his head. "I just came from the cave. I saw no one there."

"He must be somewhere underground, though."

"Are you sure? Did you see one of us take him down?"

Kris looked at Mia then back at Taskura. "No…"

Taskura whispered something, seemingly to himself, but an eight legged squid-human jogged up, panting, and stood patiently by Taskura, as the crab whispered something to him. The squid-human nodded and jogged back to where he came from. They were still in the turning of a large tunnel, a few torches hanging from the walls.

"He will send for more creatures to look for your friend," he stood for a while, then shook his head. "I expected better from you all. You should learn to take care of one another, and try not abandoning your friends, especially at a time like this. When fighting, teamwork matters. You should not only fight your enemy, but also defend your own clan. Is this understood?"

The mortals nodded a bit embarrassed, especially Kris, who was trying to lift a torch from its snug hole, but ended up quitting. Where was Jack? Would they ever find him? He sighed, feeling his disappearance was all his fault, as he turned back to face Taskura.

"Don't give up!" Taskura called and walked over standing next to him. "Your first test, then you should all take some rest. Remove the torch from the hole."

"I can't, it seems firmly attached to the wall."

"Everything is not what is seems," Taskura simple said folding his arms.

Kris was in the spotlight, the other three mortals and the crab staring at him. "Fine…" He grasped the torch with both hands and tugged hard, but it would not budge. He tried harder, but he believed he was just weak. He hadn't exercised in days, and he felt extremely tired. Just that morning he was tied up with the four other mortals, wondering if they would make it out alive, and now a crab was making him pull a torch from a wall. If he could escape the fire clan, this should be a piece of cake. He stared at the torch for a long time, and pulled at it with all of his might. The cave wall cracked a bit and the torch came free. Kris was holding it up high in the air like an Olympics champion, and the others were staring at him in awe and confusion.

"Nice job!" Mia smiled.

"Well done, mate," Mark patted Kris' back, and Kris lowered his arms, the flaming torch in his hands.

Taskura smiled, but knew there were still the other four to learn that one skill, and the hundreds of others abilities, still having the control of powers to learn. Tomorrow was going to be a long day.


	15. Alexandra's Escape

"Taskura, sir!" a man with large, metal-like plates strapped to his chest came bounding forward, his heavy feet making booming sounds as they hit the floor. "She's escaped."

Taskura peered at the man, then looked back towards the children who simply stared at the man, examining his beastly appearance. "Who?"

"The fire clan's spy, sir," he replied.

Taskura's eyes widened, and the teens gasped murmuring to each other. "Have you sent for lookouts and guards?"

"Yes, sir."

"Well go back and send for some more," Taskura turned to the children and whispered sternly, "You four go along with Homar," he jabbed his thumb behind him at the man, "and he'll take you to the safe zone. Do not leave ever, until I or Granc allow you to."

"What about Jack?" Mia demanded.

"He could be in trouble," Kris frowned, his eyebrows furrowing. "We're going with you."

"No," Taskura kept his voice low and calm, but pushed a few of them towards Homar, "stay there, and don't leave. Please." He took off in the other direction and disappeared around the curve of the tunnel. Before they knew it, they were safe in the cave they had been in a few hours before.

* * *

"Stop!" Jack called out to her.

Alex continued to run, but not too quickly, as if she was hesitant to. Jack swiftly cut in front of her and glared at her. "Why did you come here in the first place if you were going to run back anyway…without even doing anything?"

Alex lowered her eyes and didn't respond. "Answer me!" Jack shouted.

"I wanted to see you…" she whispered, then in a slightly louder voice, "I wanted to see how you were doing."

"You didn't want to kidnap me or another one of us, and take us back to your clan?"

"No!" she looked up at him in angry eyes. "And don't call it my clan. I don't think I even belong there anymore…"

"Well, you didn't bother escaping from there before," Jack folded his arms. "Whatever you stole, hand it over."

"I didn't steal anything!" she shouted, but still calmer than usual. "I told you, I just wanted to see how you were doing."

"Lies!" Jack furrowed his brows at her.

"Please, you have to belie—"

"Why should I?" Jack peered at her. "Give me one good reason why I should believe you. You're from the Fire Clan, you've tortured me before, hurt me…real bad, and you've kidnapped five of normal, innocent people like me and wanted to serve us willingly to your leader on a plate."

"Jack! I only did those things, because first, I can't control myself any longer. I can't tell my body what to do, sometimes it just does things, and I just can't control it."

"I'm sure you could have controlled the impulse of kidnapping three people."

"I only did that to stay alive. My leader would have killed me."

"I thought you were immortal."

"He's the only one who is able to take away that power when he wants to. He has some sort of…powerful object, that lets him. And the objects can only obey to the leader of the clan. No one else can control them."

Jack stared at her. "How do I know you're not lying?"

Alex looked up at him, gazing into his reproachful eyes. "Please…you just have to trust me."

Silence filled the air for a few long moments. Jack still stood, peering at her, when suddenly she crumpled to the ground, falling to her knees, and began sobbing. Jack's eyes widened and he became very confused. He didn't know what to do.

She pulled her face apart from her two damp hands and looked up at him. "Jack, if I go back there, I'll die…and if I stay here…"

"Then what? The water clan is quite generous, even to scum like you."

She cringed, her hand twitching, but resisted the impulse to fight. "Jack…they were going to kill me."

Jack looked up in extreme confusion and surprise. "Kill you?"

"They were going to take my power of immortality away using the object the leader possesses, and…" she looked up at him with watery eyes. "They were going to torture me…tie me to a chest below water and choke me, but pull me up when I'm a second away from death…they were going to repeat this for seven days…then at the very end, they will leave me tied to that god-forsaken chest for months."

Jack stared at her. Silence filled the air for stretched moments. "That's not true…" he whispered. "That can't be…you're lying!"

"It's called Afogar's curse. But they're only half completing it. The rest of it involves me underwater forever, left to rot, but they're thinking of doing something else…They're planning on experimenting on me. Using certain toxins and chemicals being released from the underwater plants to test the survival of mortals and vulnerable supernaturals underwater."

"The Water Clan would never do such a thing." Jack yanked at a loose piece of bark on a nearby tree, angrily. The Water Clan was not like that. They're nice people. Of course they are to be mean and harsh to their enemies, but Jack never knew they could be so cruel and torturous. The ways of punishment of the fire and water clans seemed to be almost equal, but Jack knew whom he could trust more. "No…" Something inside him was sparking. Something deep inside him told him to trust Alex. As small as a flame on a candle could be, it could engulf a curtain and blow up the entire house. Jack was thinking to himself, _How long could it be before a small mistake of theirs could lead to their own deaths? If a small action could lead them to think that the mortals were betraying them and cause the powerful to wipe them out within days. They were after all extremely powerful. And if they were planning on killing an immortal, though she is part of an enemy clan, they would be able to kill the mortal teens in seconds. _He pondered for a long while, when Alex spoke again.

"Danny is gone…" Alex twiddled her thumbs from her clasped hands. That was unlike her. Very unlike her. "I don't know who could replace him…" her voice broke and tears began to well in her eyes once more. Then, her head snapped up and she gazed into Jack's eyes, her own filled with sparks of hope. "Unless…" she walked forward and raised her hands as if to cup his face, then pulled them back, but still tilted her head and examined him like a spectator examines an artist's painting. Jack looked at her putting on a slightly confused look, but knew deep within him what she was about to ask. That was what he began to ponder from then until four hours later. It was about 3 AM, and the two had spent the massive amount of the time in complete silence.

"Okay," Jack furrowed his brows, and stared at Alex.

"Okay?" Alex whispered a hint of hope and excitement in her voice.

"I will do it. I'll join the Fire Clan." Jack didn't know exactly why he was doing this. Maybe the Fire Clan people's powers really appealed to him. Maybe he would act as a spy and soon escape like he did last time and report back to the Water Clan. Or maybe…just maybe, he felt extremely sorry for Alex and everything that has happened in her life and wanted to help her.

Alex grinned widely and ran forward, but Jack stepped back holding up a hand in front of him. "But I would like a few things in return."

Alex paused but nodded, letting him continue. "Never," Jack began, "I repeat, never, ever kidnap, hurt, kill, or anything related to any of those mortals," he jabbed his finger behind him, "again."

"Done," she held out her hand, but he shook his head.

"I also want all of Danny's powers."

Alex widened her eyes and something like amusement spread across her face, but then disappeared when Jack's expression turned grave and threatening. She took a deep breath. "Though I _can _give you a lot Danny's powers: immortality, ability to produce fire, strength, speed, and flying…I can't give you the same amount. You can't be as powerful as him just yet. That you have to earn yourself no matter who you are in the Fire Clan."

"How do I earn it?"

"You prove yourself tremendously worthy to not only the king, but the entire city."

"How must I do that? What did Danny do?"

"I can't tell you," she held her head up high.

Jack furrowed his brows, but thought for a few more minutes. Was so much power worth it? Was it worth joining a cruel, evil enemy clan? He wasn't completely accepted to the Water Clan just yet. He didn't give any oaths or proclamations…he was merely told by a fellow mortal that they would be willing to accept him into the clan. So technically, joining the Fire Clan would not be considered complete betrayal…at least to the Water Clan excluding the mortals.

"Fine," Jack looked up at Alex, still not smiling.

Alex held out her hand and Jack grasped it. Within seconds they were speeding across the forest; Jack was able to run as fast as her as long as their hands were clasped tightly together.

* * *

**A/N: Okay, not my best ending to a chapter, but I couldn't find the right place to stop without making this go on forever. I hope you enjoyed it anyhow! :)**


	16. Transformation

"Where could he be?"

"Anywhere."

"Oh, that's comforting, thanks, Mark."

"Just telling the truth…what I know. Come on, Samantha, he'll be fine. He's smart, I'm pretty sure he can handle whatever situation he's in."

"How can you be so sure? You know him as well as I do. Think about what could happen with Alex on the loose! What if she came here for him?"

"Sam, stop it. You're scaring yourself for no reason, and with that you're scaring the rest of us. Just calm down."

"How can I, Mark?"

"Sam, st—"

"Alex probably escaped back to the colony and grabbed Jack on the way. I've seen the way she abused him before, what if she still has something against him. Like if she went completely crazy and she's blaming Jack for the death of Danny. I mean, I think I would understand if she was upset, but keeping people hostage and taking her anger out by murdering our friend!"

Something hard and cold stung her cheek. She felt it burn and her hand immediately went up to press the swollen area. Tears began falling down and Mark's tirade that followed didn't help one bit.

"SHUT UP SAM! Nothing happened yet! Nothing! Stop making drastic conclusions about people already getting killed and…Jack will be fine. He's strong and he's smart. Nothing's going to happen to him."

"How can you be so sure Mark?" Samantha held her hand in place, pressed against her burning cheek. "How?! As far as I know, Alex is immortal and Jack isn't. He could crushed within seconds no matter how strong he, a mortal, may be. Maybe less. And they don't like each other. How do you expect Jack to do anything close to intelligent around her if they're always bickering?"

"How do you know the Water Clan haven't taken away her powers?"

"How do you know she hasn't taken them back?"

"SHUT UP! BOTH OF YOU," Kris yelled at the top of his lungs, stepping in between the squabbling couple. "All I saw in that conversation were fallacies. Neither of you said anything intelligent. You _both_ were making inferences and hasty conclusions. Why don't we focus on the present and a way we can possibly look for Jack?"

"You won't be looking for Jack," a sweet voice called from behind them all. That jellyfish…Stella. "You all will be training for the war in the next few months. No questions asked," she added when they tried to interject. "Sorry, boss' orders."

"And by boss, do you mean Taskura?"

"No, Granc. Taskura is merely a second-class middleman. Don't tell him or Caran I said that. Be ready to get up early next morning for your first day of training," she said while leaving the cave and the mortals alone.

"Did anyone else see her come in?" Mark asked, though that wasn't the question he wanted to ask. Since when was Stella so arrogant?

They shook their heads and sighed in desperation. How did they get stuck here, in this complicated situation? Before, none of them had known Jack even existed, and now they were contemplating on his disappearance like droopy willows on a stormy night. They weren't even allowed to look for him. They were to train for a war that might not even occur any time soon.

Mia curled up on a bed-like platform that was about eighteen inches off the ground, and drifted off to sleep. Kris sat next to her, as wide-awake as ever, but still somewhat exhausted. It was a very a long day. Mark and Sam sat together on another similar bed, but didn't even glance at each other. They weren't the slightest bit concerned about one another. Both of them fell asleep in seconds and Sam had ended up resting her head on Mark's shoulder. Kris was the only one left awake. He looked around. How could the absence of one person make the group seem so small? He hoped the Water Clan would figure out some way to look for Jack, and though Kris was less hopeful, rescue him from the Fire Clan's dark, smoldering clutches.

"Is this really how it feels like to make fire?" Jack laughed and produced sparks, which swelled in size and transformed into a ball of flame. He felt so powerful and that felt good.

Alex smiled while searching for something in a wooden chest. They had already arrived in Agetho and were in her room in a worn-out, but large building. "Glad to see you're enjoying yourself."

"When do I get the other powers? And for real, this time, not another 'sample' that you just gave me that's gonna last for another five seconds."

"You have to go through a formal procedure first," Alex replied tossing knick-knacks aside, and pulling out another small box.

"Like a ritual?"

"Kind of, yes. I suppose you can think of it as a rigorous rite."

Jack blew the ball of flame that was levitating above his palm away and looked at Alex, his face a bit worried. "What are they going to do to me?"

"Don't worry, it's not too bad. You won't feel too much pain in the beginning, but hey in the long term," she rubbed the keyhole of the smaller wooden box and it cracked open, "it proves to be quite useful. Your powers grow stronger as you learn to control them better and you will receive the final, and most powerful jolt of power when you prove yourself worthy."

"There you go with that again…how long will that take?"

"It depends on how good you are in controlling your powers in the beginning," she pulled out a small, brown key and rubbed of the dirt with her delicate, but now extremely worn-out and depleted fingers. The removal of debris showed the key to be a shiny brass color instead of a mud-brown one.

"This is the key to your powers," she smiled, almost devilishly. She just need to cackle and wear a long black gown and would have passed to be an evil witch.

They were soon standing in a building similar to the one that Jack first saw on his initial arrival to Agetho, except that it was a darker color. They passed through several brightly lit corridors and stopped at a room with an iron door. Alex knocked, and it was opened by a scrawny, poorly groomed guard. He smiled when he saw Alex, then frowned, but raised his eyebrows when he turned to face Jack.

"Why, hello there, boy," he held out his hand, but Jack pretended to not notice it, although he did see that filthy, bony-fingered, pathetic excuse of a human body-part. The guard frowned even further and grabbed Jack by the collar then threw him aside almost immediately in the room as the door slammed shut. Alex had come in and was observing the room. It was a little bigger than a standard living room with candles jabbed in random areas on the walls and a chandelier hung at an awkward angle with only a few candles lit up on that. A violin was being played by some sort of tentacled creature in the corner, shelves were leaning heavily against one another, their books torn apart and many sprawled on the floor. Furniture was piled on one side, and there was only a small, white cot on the other with chains attached to it, like mutant worms in an apple. Jack let out a whimper and scooted backwards bumping into a glass vase, which then plummeted to the floor with a large crash, breaking into thousands of miniscule pieces.

Right then, the guard who had opened the door had found a small stick and a fairly, neat book, and jerked his head toward Jack, who said, scared out of his mind, "Sorry about that, I—"

"You smell like fish!"

"Oh…" Jack scratched his head and stood up, dusting himself off. "That's because I was—"

"Eating it!" Alex finished off. "I gave him some fish to eat just before. He hasn't eaten in so long, you see."

"So give him a krot! Not a filthy fish. We attack them and tear them apart. We don't eat them."

Jack gave Alex an extremely confused look. "He's not very familiar with our diet, Gravel."

"Then get him familiar! The smell is absolutely putrid. Tis making my head spin round."

"Yea, I will," Alex took a seat on a random dusty couch, and folded her right leg on top of the other, setting her clasped hands on her knee, like a feeble princess. Jack rolled his eyes and before he could say anymore, he was pulled by the collar to the white cot against one wall and soon felt multiple hands pressing him down. Before he knew it, he was chained tightly to the bed and something was taped to his mouth. He couldn't move or speak. He could only see what was going on. Why couldn't they just use magical binding like last time?

He felt something pierce his left arm, but he was unable to let out a scream. The guard, Gravel, took the stick that he found and waved it on top of Jack's head, reciting some spell from the spell book he had picked up. "Gathero smi'lr vak—"

Images of blazing towers, wilting flowers, evaporating water, and flames swallowing oxygen and suffocating humans appeared in his brain, followed by a feeling of hot, molten needles piercing through his skull. His limbs grew tense and he felt the end of his nerves split. A burning liquid slithered down his throat and it seemed to flow throughout his body. Through all this, he couldn't even let out a small whimper. Soon he felt like he was right next to the sun and then was pulled far away from it back to Earth and landed with a hard thump on concrete. Something behind him cracked and he was enveloped in darkness. Only the image of a candle was left in his mind. The small flame was dancing back and forth in the wind, swaying to the beat of the drums after a loss of a life in a village. That flame, too, was blown away, and right then his eyes snapped open.

Alex was hovering above him smiling. "You did it, Jack."

"He did it?!" Gravel was stuck between a shelf and a sofa. He was wedged in their pretty tightly. Alex held up her hand at the bookshelf, which smoldered in flames for one second, then fell to the floor in ashes. Gravel was then easily able to free himself. "Way to completely disregard the one who made him close to the being of Almighty!"

"Sorry, Gravel," Alex smiled. "Good job to you too."

The worn-out guard was still not completely satisfied, but left the room with "I'm going to get me-self some tea."

Alex held out her hand to help Jack up, who slowly lifted his hand and right then forcibly flew high into the air and crashed into the ceiling, a few bits and pieces of debris gradually falling down. Alex frowned and shook her head disappointedly, looking up at Jack, "We've got a _long_ way to go."


End file.
